Dealing with the unexpected
by bhut
Summary: Other than Kebo's death, Ward's latest plan is progressing nicely, and May is experiencing this first hand. Warning: this story contains spoilers and OOC behavior.


**Dealing with the unexpected**

 _Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to Marvel™._

 _Note: this story contains spoilers for the latest episode._

Grant Ward motionlessly – and _emotionlessly_ – stared down at Kebo's corpse. "Good-bye, Kebo," he spoke quietly. "You're off to a better world – if you were loyal to Hydra. If you were not, then you will probably shudder at the abyss that expects mercenaries such as you. I told you not to underestimate S.H.I.E.L.D.; you saw yourself what the Cavalry is capable of, and the others are not that far behind. I told you not to engage them by yourself; that was not the plan, or rather – not _my_ plan. Were you working for the old guard, Kebo? In that case – yeah, my statement still stands: you are off to a better world – if you were loyal to Hydra."

Ward fell silent. Kebo's eulogy was practically done, and as for everything else... Von Strucker had been taken care of – and by S.H.I.E.L.D., too. Kebo's corpse aside, the scene out here was exactly what Ward had expected – he knew Cavalry, he knew Coulson, and he knew that Hunter's little bon-mot would not go well with the old guard, not at all. Odds are, Hunter was off the case, and someone – most likely Morse – was back in; judging by the use of electricity and water they _were_ dealing with Morse.

...Oh good, he was looking for a rematch with her. A hero, was he? He was so looking forward to making Morse eat those words, alongside few teeth and maybe those sticks of hers, too. As for the Cavalry, and Coulson, and others? His initial plan was still largely intact – no thanks to von Strucker and Malick.

Malick... Grant didn't know him very well; he never had been that deep in Hydra before, but 'trying to catch my attention'? Really? Nice to see that self-centered attitude – List had it, Whitehall had it, even John had it. Grant himself...he does not know any more. He remembers John, Kara Lynn, even Skye – on a bad day – and he does not care. He _had_ made his bed, he is going to lie in it, and if Malick thinks differently, Ward is actually going to enjoy deflating him and all: Malick is good, Malick is formidable, but Malick has made one mistake – he has _misjudged_ Ward. He had _estimated_ him correctly, to a T, but he has _misjudged_ him.

Hydra, ever since the Red Skull, Whitehall and others had started it, had attracted various types of people. There were the members of the Incentive program; there were the brainwashed types; the mercenaries; and the Heads of Hydra, intelligent and amoral, who planned to use everything and everyone to get ahead, to get what they want. Coulson, from what he had heard, had killed many of them some time ago – it did not matter. There were always people like this, you cut of one head, and two more would grow. And now that Hydra was _still_ splintered, this situation was going to get worse.

...And then there was Ward. He was not stupid, he probably was intelligent, and he probably was amoral, especially by the standards of Coulson and the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s righteous assholes. Hunter's an asshat, but at least he is honest in his hatred; Grant will take this over Coulson's righteousness, or Skye's backstabbing any day. But speaking of hatred...Grant does not care. For Hydra. Not after what they have done to Kara Lynn. Malick does not appear to be aware of her (for all of his reputation, he stayed away from Whitehall and his experiments, because the doctor in question was scarier yet, and absolutely insane, in an inhuman sort of way), which means he assumes that Grant wants Hydra for power and riches.

Grant does not. Hydra is going to provide him with enough manpower for him to take revenge on S.H.I.E.L.D., nothing more. He had toyed with the idea of toeing the party line to bring Hydra into the light, but between von Strucker's political prostitution and Malick's re-emergence, Ward can...fool Malick long enough for execute his final maneuver – his revenge on S.H.I.E.L.D. He is not going to make it, most likely, S.H.I.E.L.D. always did have better, more qualified people for agents in its ranks, but that did not matter. All he needs is closure – and Malick and his offers can go to Hell.

 _Do not let them buy you, son, and do not let them sell you,_ John had told him about the Heads of Hydra. Pity that the elder baron von Strucker did not tell this to his boy – then maybe he would've better understood just what he had inherited, along with the von Strucker family name and fortune... but what's done is done, and von Strucker is out of his hands...for now. Rather, he is in the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D. with some very sensitive information about one of their own.

Cavalry. Ward remembers her, remembers sleeping with her, remembers having his larynx broken by her – he remembers everything that happened between the two of them... _as long as he had not been under Lorelei's control_...and this is what damned him in the Cavalry's eyes – she doesn't like to share and she has to be on top. Considering just what Ward remembers, the view alone is worth it. Andrew Garner is a lucky man...or was, because now his luck had run out.

...Oh sure, maybe Melinda will just break his larynx and force him to communicate via pen and paper for the next few weeks as he heals. Considering, however, just what _Lash_ had been up to, Ward would not bet on it. The Cavalry may have tricked him into killing Kara Lynn – but now they are even, and he is done with von Strucker for the moment as well... Overall, Malick's appearance and Kebo's death aside, Grant's plans of destabilizing S.H.I.E.L.D. and dealing with von Strucker's...situation worked as planned – he can live with the new variables...literally.

And now – onto the next stage of his plan.

/

"Well," said Bobbi.

"Um," said Bobbi.

"I've got nothing," admitted Bobbi. "You think that von Strucker was lying?"

"It's too much of a stretch," Melinda heard herself speak. "Neither Ward in particular nor Hydra in general had too much knowledge of the InHumans; not even Whitehall did, and his knowledge died with him. If von Strucker wanted to set us up, he wouldn't have gone to such personal pains, nor would he know how this would affect us."

"...You said more right now than you did in the last 12 hours-"

"Morse. My husband, my Andrew, is a monster that goes around killing innocent people-"

"You don't know if they're all innocent-"

"Do you honestly believe that this matters, Bobbi?" Melinda twitched. "I love him, I love him, but, but it all adds up."

"What adds up?" Bobbi asked quietly: the Cavalry currently was something else to behold, as her normally expressionless face disappeared, leaving behind a broken and distraught woman. If Skye, (well, Daisy now) would have been here, she could have and would have related, but she was not, and Bobbi, for better or for worse, was an entirely different person.

"Everything!" Melinda all but wailed, ignoring that this was out of character for her. "Starting with how Jiaying in her Li Shi backwater knew about Bahrain! Andrew was working with her sect all along! He told her everything in exchange for instructions, and now that she is gone, he is running around the States in his secret identity, killing off people who knew about his involvement!"

"...Have you been hanging around Monica Rambeau lately?"

"What?"

"Melinda, we cannot jump to conclusions. Andrew-"

"Andrew knows me. And Phil. And others. He is... he was our friend, at least. He knew that we would have helped him if he would just confess, but he never did. And frankly, there were not too many people, who honestly knew what happened to me in Bahrain, and except for Andrew, all of them were in S.H.I.E.L.D. If _Hydra_ had learned about this, it would have been one thing; I could assume that the leakage was from S.H.I.E.L.D. But Jiaying – she was never Hydra; she was evil of an entirely different kind, and now she's laughing at me from Hell."

Bobbi just stared, as anger seemed to drain from the other woman. "I don't exactly hate anyone," Melinda continued, completely oblivious to her behavior, (which was unnatural for her, let us be honest here), "not even Ward. He is just a puppet – first of Garrett, then of Whitehall, and now of whoever it is that is trying to make us all dance. I almost feel sorry for him – maybe if he survives long enough, I will persuade Coulson to put him into T.A.H.I.T.I. or something. But Jiaying... She wasn't Hydra, she was never Hydra, she just wanted to kill all humans – and to that end she tried to twist Skye, she twisted Andrew, and even her own husband – Cal Zabo isn't the best man to be around, but considering that she twisted him...thank God she's dead, but she's still having her last laugh..."

"Aren't you jumping to conclusions?" Bobbi twitched.

"Morse, my ex-husband is killing innocent people. He has infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. He still claims to have feelings for me. Where am I supposed to jump to?"

"Good point," Bobbi agreed, and as she observed the Cavalry continuing to walk around, actually talking (even if largely to herself) and gesticulating, she realized one thing: nothing was ever going to be the same in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Not ever again.

End


End file.
